Homeschooled: Isolation, a Mother’s Unraveling, and Finding a Way Out w/ Stefan Merrill Block

Stephen sits down with bestselling author Stefan Merrill Block to discuss his memoir Homeschooled—a tender, unsettling, often darkly funny account of being pulled out of school at nine and drawn into years of isolation with a mother in slow-motion collapse. Together they explore the blurry line between love and control, how loneliness shapes a mind, what “unschooling” can hide, and why basic oversight and child protections in homeschooling laws matter.BUY THE BOOK HERENew York Times ArticleChapters:00:00:00 Welcome + introducing Homeschooled and Stefan Merrill Block00:04:20 “A semester” becomes four-and-a-half years of isolation00:07:10 “Unschooling,” genius narratives, and family division00:10:20 Loneliness, reading, and writing as survival00:13:00 Is it abuse? Tenderness, ambivalence, and reader validation00:20:10 Anger, fear, and the cost of “betrayal” at home00:22:40 Bleached hair, peroxide, and the theater of control00:24:55 Crawling for months: the episode readers can’t forget00:35:45 Homeschooling laws, oversight failures, and reform00:46:20 Returning to high school and building a life afterward Get full access to Living in the Meantime at livinginthemeantime.substack.com/subscribe